QOTD: The most important smartphone?

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Shaun

qotd27What, in your opinion, has been the most important smartphone release ever? I am tempted to say the iPhone because of the effect it had, but the Treo 650 also ranks highly for the same reason.

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13 Responses to QOTD: The most important smartphone?

  1. Jason says:
    January 5, 2010 at 6:39 am

    Not a fan of the iPhone, but there’s no denying it’s effect it had on consumers and competitors.

    The original HTC Touch was quite important in it’s own right. It catapulted Windows Mobile into the mainstream masses.

  2. Philippa says:
    January 5, 2010 at 9:50 am

    I’d say the iPhone brought it to the masses too, but much as I hate to say it I think the Blackberry is up there. Keyboard and push email was very influential.

  3. AndrewP says:
    January 5, 2010 at 11:11 am

    I think you could summarise from the Rogers Adoption Curve.

    RIM Blackberry = Early adopters
    Palm Treo 650 = Early majority
    Apple iPhone = Late majority

  4. RuiD says:
    January 5, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Treo, definately. As always, copies were much better ;)

  5. elbowz says:
    January 5, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    I’d say that the most important smartphones include the P800, Treo 180, XDA IIi and the iPhone.

    The P800 and Treo were the first phones to truly deliver ‘smartphone’ functionality in something approaching a normal phone’s dimensions. The XDA was the first to deliver true connectivity and the iPhone was the first to deliver all of the above to the mass market.

    Special mention must go to the Nokia Communicators which broke new ground…

    The most important of all? I’d go with the XDA – it really was good enough to use as a PDA/phone/MP3 player without feeling like you were making significant compromise.

  6. John in SA says:
    January 5, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    Definitely the Treo 650.

    Shaun says it all on http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-decade-of-pdas-and-smartphones-2003-2005/

    The Palm Treo 650 dominated 2004 and was the first smartphone to reach a mass audience. It was hugely popular in the US and I remember well walking around Disneyworld and seeing nothing but Treo’s a couple of years later. It had a superb battery life, a high resolution screen.

  7. jah says:
    January 5, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    The Ericsson R380 (around 2001) and the SE P800 were the first real Smartphones. These were innovative devices and set the standard for others to follow. The Nokia Communicator was again very innovative but did not lead to mass market devices. The Nokia 7710 was too early and was Nokia’s iPhone back in 2004/5! But you can’t ignore the influence of Apple and the iPhone.

  8. Keith says:
    January 5, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    The most important smartphone of all times has to be the MDA / XDA. Germany was flooded with these devices – everybody had to have one. It may not have been the most sold or the best smartphone, but it surely had the biggest impact on the market. Before that time only few were using smartphones, some Motorola Palm phones, some the P800 but the real breakthrough came with T-Mobile and its very clever marketing of the MDA-series.

  9. gavinfabl says:
    January 5, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    Treo 600/650 – set the ground rules and then the Samsung i780. The i780 had an optical mouse, now ripped off by Blackberry.

    The iPhone rejuvenated the phone market and apps.

  10. PreKing says:
    January 5, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    This should be be “what was the most important smartphone that was actually good to use” and thus stuff from the likes of Nokia and Sony would be instantly ruled out. I’m amazed that anyone would not think that the Palm Treo 650 was the most important and nicest to use.

  11. Keith says:
    January 6, 2010 at 12:55 am

    Intuitively I’d also rule out the Symbian devices, but on second thought I dare say, that those amongst the most usable ones of all times: They are stable, reliable, have 3rd party apps for every need and are cheap as hell compared to other.
    I could not think of any lack Symbian had ever had. Only prob is, that I have to click 5 times until I get to writing an email since the options are so wealthy..

    Just out of curiosity: What sets the Sony and Nokia apart from being good?

  12. lazyboy says:
    January 6, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    “I’m amazed that anyone would not think that the Palm Treo 650 was the most important and nicest to use.”

    Never truly liked any of the Treo devices. For me, Palm OS lost much of it’s charm when Palm tried to adapt it to stylus-free use, and I never got on with the keyboard.

  13. Jesse Najera says:
    January 7, 2010 at 2:47 am

    TREO 650 hands down started it all off!!!!!